Participants in many different kinds of sports typically wear protective headgear intended to prevent or minimize injury. This protective headgear typically takes the form of helmets or caps worn to prevent head injuries resulting either from hard physical contact with other players or from contact with a fast-moving ball or other object used in playing the game.
One specific example of protective headgear is the batting helmet now almost universally worn by batterns in baseball or softball. In these games, the stance assumed by the batter places either his left or right side substantially facing the pitcher, leaving one side of the batter's face exposed close to the path of oncoming pitched balls. Major-league baseball pitches can throw fastballs at speeds exceeding 60 mph (88 ft/sec), leaving little time for even a well-conditioned ball player to react and avoid an erratic or mispitched ball moving on a path toward the batter's head. The sudden impact of a pitched baseball striking a side of the batter's face can fracture the cheekbone or jawbone, requiring extensive reconstructive surgery and sidelining the player during the reconstructive and healing processes.
This problem is no less important with amateur baseball or softball players, and particularly with youth league players such as Little League and the like. Pitchers at these levels of play, while usually incapable of the throwing speeds common in major-league pitching, may also lack the control of more experienced pitchers. Moreover, the amateur or youthful batter may be too inexperienced to reflexively avoid an oncoming pitch thrown or to veering toward the batter's face. Serious injuries incurred by a youthful player are particularly upsetting and can lead to damage claims by the batter or the batter's parents. Even the fear of being hit in the face by a pitched ball may make youthful players less effective as batters.
The conventional present-day batting helmet includes a side portion extending downwardly over the batter's ear and including an opening located over the ear itself. This side portion usually is located on the side of the helmet facing the pitcher, and the location thus depends on whether the batter is right- or left-handed. However, this side portion of the conventional batter's helmet protects only the side of the batter's cranium, leaving the cheek and jaw completely exposed and unprotected.
Other expedient measures for protecting batters have been proposed, with little or no known adoption by ball players. One such measure, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,427, includes a face guard extending fully around the batter's face, much like the face guard of a football helmet. However, this face guard is capable of protecting only a relatively narrow portion of the batter's face. Another such measure, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,596, includes a full-face shield of rigid construction and lacking padding.
Another prior-art effort toward solving the problem is the batter's mask disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,868,926. That reference describes a batter's mask having an open wire frame surrounding the cranium and extending downwardly on one side of the batter's head. However, the mask leaves parts of the batter's face exposed, and apparently relies to some extent on the ability of the mask to deflect oncoming balls and thereby minimize damage to the batter. In any case, this prior art discloses a construction not readily adaptable to present-day batting helmets.